Coast Guard, good Samaritan help adrift vesselA fishing vessel disabled near Kodiak contacted the Coast Guard before another vessel towed them into the harbor, according to a Coast Guard release. The Mariner crew reported that they were drifting in Shelikof Strait in the disabled boat on Monday evening. After losing communications with the vessel, an Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk flew out to find the boat and establish communications again, the release sai...

Darlo D. Dayton“LIVELY OLD MAN OF THE SEA” Written for the Kodiak Tapestry, By Mike Rostad, adapted for Memorial Purposes by Darlo’s Family. This “old man” of the sea is a rather lively chap. He jumps from one part of the Cape Douglas to another as he inspects the cargo; then he rushes to the engine room to take care of other tasks; and once the vessel is well underway and he is sure everything is set for the voyage, he pops int...

Havoc MMA debuts in KodiakJeff Miranda trained four months for his debut in mixed martial arts fighting. His match lasted less than 10 seconds. Miranda connected on a powerful overhand right that knocked out Brandon Steele seconds after the opening bell. Steele fell, Miranda raised both arms and the estimated 700 people in attendance inside the Kodiak Island Fairgrounds pavilion went wild. That was the shortest of seven fights during the i...

Sea Stories: Commercial Fishing Safety Regulations and the 1985 Sinking of the Western Sea For thousands of years mariners set off on their voyages trusting in their knowledge of the sea, the seaworthiness of their vessels, the gods and luck, to come home safely. And for thousands of years, when their luck ran out, mariners usually died. For sailors and their families this was part of their bargain with the sea for providing them a living. Until the 1700s, even as shipbuilding technology made huge advan...

1,000th column sprouts garden memories In life, numbers eventually catch up with us: 50 miles to the next gas station, in 10 minutes the cookies are done, your smartphone is maxed out with photos. And then there’s the number 1,000, which caught up with me this week as the number of garden columns I’ve written to date. The number “one thousand” has been around awhile. A picture is worth a thousand words, there’s Thousand Oaks, California, Thousand Islan...

Softball draws HutchKodiak’s softball team will face Hutchison for the third time this season when the small-school state softball championships begin Friday in Fairbanks. The two squads open the two-day, double-elimination tournament at 1 p.m. The winner advances to play Southeast Conference champion Ketchikan at 3:30 p.m., while the loser falls to a loser-out contest at 6 p.m. Kodiak, the runner-up in the Northern Lights Conference...

Baseball faces ChugiakKodiak baseball will open the state baseball tournament against a familiar foe — Chugiak. The two teams have played each other four times over the last two seasons, and that number doubles when you count last summer’s American Legion season. The Mustangs, the Cook Inlet Conference champions, won this year’s only battle against Kodiak, a 7-0 decision on the second day of the Rex Edward Matautia Invitational Basebal...

Kodiak state troopers will not be affected by layoffsAs about 10,000 state employees were expected to get layoff notices due to the legislative gridlock over the state’s spending plan, the Department of Public Safety announced Monday that two trooper posts will be closed and 27 trooper positions will be lost. The good news: State troopers in Kodiak will not be affected by layoffs, DPS spokesman Timothy Despain said. “The troopers that are already there won’t be affe...

Putting a face on the loss of a homeTo echo Jamie Fagan’s excellent editorial about the apparent ambivalence of the community to the plight of those in the Jackson neighborhood: it is true that the homeowners there face a crisis that is less dramatic perhaps than a tsunami, but their suffering is no less tragic. I will share a personal story. I grew up in a high-dollar area on the western slope of Colorado, but my family wasn’t wealthy. We were dirt...

Council passes nonprofit funding changeThe Kodiak City Council has approved a resolution that changes a funding requirement for nonprofits. The council decided it was unfair to existing nonprofits. The ordinance removed the cap that restricted nonprofits from receiving more than a 10 percent increase over their previous grant. With this requirement, nonprofits that had never applied before could potentially apply for the full amount available, while a ...